The Healing of America

It is a must-read for historians of medicine and scholars in women's studies and political history, as well as for naturopaths and all readers interested in alternative medicine.

For a half century or more, black people have labored under the spell of what Jesse Lee Peterson calls the “alchemists.” These are the race hustlers, media hacks, politicians, community organizers and the like who promise to “fundamentally transform” America. The transformation they promise, however, produces only fool’s gold—unearned benefits like welfare, food stamps, subsidized housing, payouts from lawsuits, and maybe one day even reparations. Worse, to secure these counterfeit goods, recipients have to sacrifice something of infinite value: the sanctity of the two-parent family. It is a devil’s bargain.

OVER THE PAST DECADE, alternative medical therapies have played an increasingly prominent role in American health care. In the nation’s grocery stores, homeopathic treatments and over-thecounter herbal remedies crowd aisles that were once largely devoted to analgesics, sore throat lozenges, and fruit-flavored, animal-shaped children’s vitamins. Eager to fill their beds and their coffers, hospitals advertise—even celebrate—the inclusion of nontraditional medical practices.